Roof rack crossbars:factory vs aftermarket

[AlexJet]

I would suggest aftermarket crossbars. 2 reasons for this:
- Weight capacity. I had the oem crossbars. They say that they are rated for a certain weight, but because of their "bow" design, the bars flex significantly once they are holding some weight.
- Close proximity to the roof. The oem crossbars look best because they are unobtrusive... but this can lead to issues with mounted items touching the roof of the truck. My Thule roof box mounts touched the roof of the 4runner as soon as I put any weight in the box (golf clubs).

I now run Thule 450 cross bars. They support weight with no flex, leave clearance from the roof of the 4runner, and due to their "flat" mounting surface, I think they'd make hauling a kayak or canoe a breeze.

Here's a vacation pic of my set-up:

Do you have a picture of the THULE box touching the Roof with OEM bars? How would this be possible? The box shouldn't sag that much...

 

[bigguy02]

Has anyone used a roof top basket to mount kayaks too? I’m interested in a Curt or Rola and was thinking I could mount my kayaks right to them.


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[Tim P]

I'm planning on fabricating some steel square tube (1inx2in) crossbars for my Runner, which will primarily be used for my RTT. I'm also going to be integrating some LED lighting into the design for forward-facing, and surround (campsite) lighting.

Depending on how they turn out, I might make a few extra sets and offer them up to the membership here.

 

[Ronin61945]

Does anyone have any experience with the LFD Off Road- Ruggedized Cross Bar Sets? Any comparisons to Thule or Yakima? They look pretty nice and seem reasonable priced.

 

[bigguy02]

Does anyone have any experience with the LFD Off Road- Ruggedized Cross Bar Sets? Any comparisons to Thule or Yakima? They look pretty nice and seem reasonable priced.

Just got mine in the mail and installed today. No experience with them yet, haven’t even driven it yet, but I really like the look. Hope to get my kayak up there or something soon. I got 2 steel ones and 2 aluminum ones.

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[ToyDB]

I consider OEM for my 2018 Limited but wanted crossbars the sit higher than the "shark fin" antennae to prevent damage. Looked at Yakima and Thule but noticed Malone was popular with the kayak community and much lower priced than Yakima and Thule. Went with the Aero2 Malone which is quiet, rated for 130lbs and has a sturdy/lockable mount. Not a kayaker but Malone has a wide variety of the typical add on accessories for kayaks, bikes, etc.

 

[Friggin Idiot]

Standard issue is insufficient! Go aftermarket.
I love my RagoRails (Officially: Modular Factory Rail Support System, but RagoRails is much easier to say!)
They are low profile, can bolt about anything to them, and take the weight of a roof top tent if you need.

 

[ElectroBoy]

Just got mine in the mail and installed today. No experience with them yet, haven’t even driven it yet, but I really like the look. Hope to get my kayak up there or something soon. I got 2 steel ones and 2 aluminum ones.

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I'm wondering, why did you get a mix of steel and aluminum?

Plus, I couldn't see on their website that aluminum was even offered.
Can you provide a link?
Thanks.

 

[gte610v]

Has anyone used a roof top basket to mount kayaks too? I’m interested in a Curt or Rola and was thinking I could mount my kayaks right to them.


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Yakima Megawarrior with two kayak mounts on top. easy peasy

 

[bigguy02]

I'm wondering, why did you get a mix of steel and aluminum?



Plus, I couldn't see on their website that aluminum was even offered.

Can you provide a link?

Thanks.

They don’t have them listed on there site, I messaged them on Facebook and they emailed me a invoice for them. If you check the description of there full rack they mention the aluminum ones. I mixed them for the strength of steel and light weight of aluminum. They don’t recommend the aluminum for RTT’s and I might run one at some point. Also, because I plan on going with there full rack at some point, when you buy one of there racks the provide 2 steel cross bars and then 4 aluminum ones. I assume they do this so that you have the strength of the steel ones on 2 points for bigger heavier items and then the aluminum for save some weight. The steel bars are about 5lbs a piece and the aluminum ones are about 1lb a piece. So I was looking st 20lbs vs 12lbs, while 8lbs isn’t a huge difference it does add up over time.

And I’ll add a slightly better day time picture

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[e60ral]

I've been using the LFD rails since the prototype and I'm really happy with them. I think they really nailed the price/performance mark, I think this is the best bang for your buck option on the market. And since they have side rails available now, it's expandable to a 3/4 or full rack using your same cross bars.

 

[Bodhi327]

LFD looks nice

First I have heard of them

 

[Magnetic]

Antenna mount?

I've been using the LFD rails since the prototype and I'm really happy with them.

I think they really nailed the price/performance mark,

I think this is the best bang for your buck option on the market.

And since they have side rails available now, it's expandable to a 3/4 or full rack using your same cross bars.

I also like the price point as they seem solid and practical.

I was thinking of using them as both crossbar upgrade (strength and function),

and a possible mounting point for a ham antenna (aftermarket rack, lights, etc...).

I wonder if anyone here is using them as a solid antenna rack mount as well... :noidea:

 

[e60ral]

You could definitely use it as an antenna mount, depending on the mount you may need to drill a hole if it's larger than the provided holes, but that's easy (or message them and see if they could laser cut a hole for an NMO mount or something)

Or if you want to get fancy you could get a 20"x20" aluminum plate to use as a ground plane and mount the antenna to that then mount the plate to the bars at the existing hole locations, that would give you really good performance.

 

[jafrush]

I'm one of the guys behind LFD.

We do have someone running an antenna setup on one of our crossbars, but I didn't hear if he had to make any modifications. We actually have a aluminum mounting plate accessory (not up on the website either yet) to bolt between two crossbars for things like Rotopax, etc.

We don't have the aluminum crossbars up on our website yet, we've been trying to stockpile those for the 3/4 and 7/8 racks, but they are available. If you're only going to use the factory side rails, you won't see a big advantage going with aluminum over steel. The real advantage comes when adding the complete racks, with the extra crossbars you do start to get significant weight savings.

You probably could run an RTT fine on aluminum, but we do recommend steel for those, just because of the extra strength.

Let me know if anyone has more questions!

 

[Magnetic]

You could definitely use it as an antenna mount,

depending on the mount you may need to drill a hole if it's larger than the provided holes,

but that's easy (or message them and see if they could laser cut a hole for an NMO mount or something)

Or if you want to get fancy you could get a 20"x20" aluminum plate to use as a ground plane and mount the antenna to that then mount the plate to the bars at the existing hole locations,

that would give you really good performance.

Good info!

I'm one of the guys behind LFD.

We do have someone running an antenna setup on one of our crossbars,

but I didn't hear if he had to make any modifications.

We actually have a aluminum mounting plate accessory (not up on the website either yet) to bolt between two crossbars for things like Rotopax, etc.

We don't have the aluminum crossbars up on our website yet,

we've been trying to stockpile those for the 3/4 and 7/8 racks, but they are available.

If you're only going to use the factory side rails, you won't see a big advantage going with aluminum over steel.

The real advantage comes when adding the complete racks, with the extra crossbars you do start to get significant weight savings.

You probably could run an RTT fine on aluminum, but we do recommend steel for those, just because of the extra strength.

Let me know if anyone has more questions!

Thanks for the feedback.

I would love to see the antenna install with your crossbars.

I like the idea of mounting the antenna as high and as solidly as possible without having to drill into the roof.

I am assuming that with steel crossbars bolted to the factory side rails, grounding should not be an issue...

 

[jafrush]

Good info!



Thanks for the feedback.

I would love to see the antenna install with your crossbars.

I like the idea of mounting the antenna as high and as solidly as possible without having to drill into the roof.

I am assuming that with steel crossbars bolted to the factory side rails, grounding should not be an issue...

You and me both! I haven't seen a picture of it either, but I did hear from the customer that it worked well.

Grounding may still be an issue - the factory roof rails possibly could be insulated pretty well from the roof, there's a rubber foot under the rail ends. It'd depend on how much contact the bolts provide. Something we haven't tried testing.

 

[young]

I'm one of the guys behind LFD.

We do have someone running an antenna setup on one of our crossbars, but I didn't hear if he had to make any modifications. We actually have a aluminum mounting plate accessory (not up on the website either yet) to bolt between two crossbars for things like Rotopax, etc.

We don't have the aluminum crossbars up on our website yet, we've been trying to stockpile those for the 3/4 and 7/8 racks, but they are available. If you're only going to use the factory side rails, you won't see a big advantage going with aluminum over steel. The real advantage comes when adding the complete racks, with the extra crossbars you do start to get significant weight savings.

You probably could run an RTT fine on aluminum, but we do recommend steel for those, just because of the extra strength.

Let me know if anyone has more questions!

How much for aluminum?

 

[bigguy02]

How much for aluminum?

My invoice says 110$ a piece. They discount them when you buy more then 2.

 

[Ronin61945]

It seems that everyone is pretty happy with the LFD rails. I appreciate the information and may give them a try.